3 Kinds of Real Estate Buyers You Shouldn’t Waste Your Time On

As if selling your home weren’t stressful enough, can you believe there are people who want to take up your time and view your property, without having the slightest intention of making an offer on it?

It’s a sad but true aspect of real estate sales, and it’s incredibly frustrating for sales agents and property owners alike. So how can you spot these annoyances early?

Here are the three most commonly encountered suspects when it comes to spotting real estate time-wasters.

1. Financially unqualified

Some agents have a hard time asking this question, so make sure yours has it written into his or her prerequisites for showing your property. It’s not just about the showing, either.

What if the person makes an offer, engages your time with several counter-offers and amendments, only for you to discover a months or two later that he or she is simply not qualified to secure the mortgage needed to fulfill the offer?

That’s much more frustrating and costly, in terms of how many other potential buyers might have been scared off by the “pending offer” status of your property.

2. Tire-kickers

There are a lot of people out there who don’t know what they’re looking for. To some extent, this is understandable. But if someone wants to look at a mix of wildly different properties, and your listing agent has any control over that, ask your agent to make sure that prospects know what they want.

Preparing for showings is exhausting, physically and emotionally, and you don’t want to have to do it any more often than necessary. A little up-front questioning can save you hours of time, so make sure you tell your agent that (without sharing more than he or she needs to know).

3. People who are visiting on vacation

True, some people like to imagine buying a home in the region where they love to vacation, but you should be wary of the individuals who say things like “someday we’d like to have a place here” or “we’re just curious to see what homes look like around here.”

If it’s an open house, that’s fine; but definitely steer clear of wasting time and resources with a showing, especially if you live in popular vacation areas like Las Vegas, Reno, or cities where real estate listings are close to tourist attractions.

Anna is a freelance writer and researcher from the Olympia, WA area who loves to obsess about weird topics and then write about them. When she isn't writing, she is outside on her bike and comtemplating her eventual trip to graduate school.